Etruscan Influence on Rome

The Etruscans had a great social, cultural, and political influence on early Rome. This seafaring people brought their language, religion, etc. to northern Italy. Tomb paintings provide insight into the culture of the Etruscans. The skill of the Etruscans at urban planning, engineering, and waterworks all had a deep influence on Rome. Building city walls, engineering the Forum, creating the great drain to the Tiber River, using temple decorations, etc. were all thought to occur becuase of Etruscan influence. Hierarchy and symbols of military authority in Rome were also influenced by the Etruscans. This led to the fasces, a bundle of rods surrounding an axe. The Olympian gods were also in the array of gods of the Etruscans. Since Etruscans cities had disputes, the Etruscans could not unite against a common enemy. This led to fact that the Greek colonies of southern Italy and Sicily defeated the Etruscans in a sea battle. This led to the decline of the Etruscans.

On the map, the Etruscans are in red.

Kings of Rome (Part 2)

Ancus Marcius-fourth king of Rome: Ancus was a highly religious grandson of Numa. He ruled from 640 to 617 BC. He founded the port of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber River.
Tarquinius Priscus-fifth king of Rome: Tarquinius was a favorite of King Ancus, which led to him being Ancus' successor. He ruled between 616 and 579 BC. He drained the marshes between the hills and helped create the Roman Forum.
Servius Tullius-sixth king of Rome: His rule lasted from 578 to 535 BC. He organized the Roman army into groups of 100 men called centuries. He was said to have built a new wall around the city.
Lucius Tarquinus Superbus(Tarquin the Proud)-seventh king of Rome: He was the cruel seventh king of Rome. He was expelled in 510 BC after his son raped Lucretia. Lucretia was a virtuous Roman matron and the wife of his kinsman Collatinus.

Kings of Rome (Part one)

Romulus-first king of Rome: He founded Rome with Remus in 753 BC, then killed him after he jumped over the wall he made. Romulus invited the Sabines (a people east of the Tiber River) into Rome for a festival. He then kidnapped the Sabine women to provide the wives necessary to make Rome's population grow.
Numa Pompilius-second king of Rome: He was a Sabine who was especially devout to religion. He had a peaceful reign. Many religious traditions of Rome are attributed to him (like having no Romans work on days of festivals of the gods). His reign lasted from 715 to 673 BC.
Tullus Hostilius-third king of Rome: His reign lasted from 672 to 641 BC. Tullus was warlike and started to conquer and expand Rome. When he got the plague the people thought it was a punishment for neglecting the gods. They therefore named Ancus Marcius as the new king

Indo-European Languages

dark green-countries with a majority of speakers of Indo-European languages
light green-countries with an Indo-European minority language with official status

-the most widely spoken family of languages in the world.

-contains the subfamilies Albanian, Armenian, Baltic, Celtic, Germanic, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Italic (includes the Romance languages), Slavic, Anatolian (extinct), and Tocharian (extinct).

-about 1.6 billion people speak Indo-European languages today.

-has a close relationship to Sanskrit and Greek

-originally was highly inflected, but there has been an inflection decay